Jeet Kune Do?

[ps1]

If you can find an instructor with legitimate lineage, yes, it's a great art. However, many (I dare say most) do not have legitimate lineage. They read Tao of Jeet Kune Do and say they're teaching JKD based on what they've learned in the past and what "works best for them." What they don't realize....Most of that book wasn't even written by Lee.

[sensei8]

If you can find an instructor with legitimate lineage, yes, it's a great art. However, many (I dare say most) do not have legitimate lineage. They read Tao of Jeet Kune Do and say they're teaching JKD based on what they've learned in the past and what "works best for them." What they don't realize....Most of that book wasn't even written by Lee.

In what way?? If memory serves me, the notes of Lee were formulated into the Tao of JKD, and if that's true, while Lee didn't actually pen said book, the notes and all were Lee, thus, Lee "wrote" the book.

[AngelAriz]

Tao of JKD is a collection of notes and ideas.

It wasnt a finished product.

Sijo Lee used many training methods, discarded many.

The training methods and drills that became known as JKD is in the hands of the Original JKD and 2 nd generation students. If you dont train with a qualified instructor you will not "see" and feel the energy the drills are supposed to be done with.

[ps1]

If you can find an instructor with legitimate lineage, yes, it's a great art. However, many (I dare say most) do not have legitimate lineage. They read Tao of Jeet Kune Do and say they're teaching JKD based on what they've learned in the past and what "works best for them." What they don't realize....Most of that book wasn't even written by Lee.

In what way?? If memory serves me, the notes of Lee were formulated into the Tao of JKD, and if that's true, while Lee didn't actually pen said book, the notes and all were Lee, thus, Lee "wrote" the book.

In the words of Chris Kent:

"HOW MANY BOOKS DID BRUCE LEE WRITE?

There is a scene in “Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story” which bugs me a bit. It is the scene in which Bruce Lee, in the midst of recovering from an injury sustained during a challenge match with members of the Chinese community (an extremely “Hollywood” elaboration on what actually took place), receives a copy of The Tao of Jeet Kune Do from the publisher. I understand the need for the film business to heighten dramatic elements, and am not one who watches movies looking to find mistakes or inaccuracies. But the reason this scene bugs me is because it leads people to mistakenly believe that the book was written by Bruce himself and published during his lifetime.

So, for the sake of historical accuracy, how many books did Bruce Lee actually write? The answer is that he personally wrote only one book. “Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self-Defense” was a 97 page book written by Lee himself and published in an extremely limited edition in 1963. The book was re-published by Ohara Publications in 1987.

“The Tao of Jeet Kune Do” was actually published in 1975 by Ohara Publications. It was then re-published in a revamped format in 2011. While the material contained within came from Bruce Lee’s written material, the book was not actually written by Lee himself. It was compiled and edited by Gilbert Johnson, a noted writer working for Black Belt at the time.

A four-part book series titled, “Bruce Lee’s Fighting Methods” was published in the late 80’s or early 90’s (I don’t have a copy with me at this time so do not have the exact publishing date) by Ohara Publications. The text for this series books was put together by the publisher, Mito Uyehara, utilizing material from the Tao of JKD as well as other articles pertaining to JKD published by Black Belt magazine. Uyehara was both a student and good friend of Bruce Lee.

In the late 1990’s Tuttle Publishing released a series of books containing Bruce Lee’s notes which were compiled and edited by John Little who worked in conjunction with the Bruce Lee estate.

There have been countless books concerned with Bruce Lee and JKD published in the forty years since Lee passed away, including several I have written myself. But as far as Bruce Lee goes, he only wrote one.

(Note -- For the sake of historical accuracy it has been noted that Bruce Lee did assist James y. Lee in writing the book “Wing Chun Kung Fu” which was published by Ohara Publications in 1972. However, his name does not appear on the book)."

The biggest problem is people pick up the book and think they are reading what Lee actually meant. They aren't. It's not an instruction manual and quite possibly includes ideas that Lee actually decided not to use in his art.

[CredoTe]

If you can find an instructor with legitimate lineage, yes, it's a great art. However, many (I dare say most) do not have legitimate lineage. They read Tao of Jeet Kune Do and say they're teaching JKD based on what they've learned in the past and what "works best for them." What they don't realize....Most of that book wasn't even written by Lee.

In what way?? If memory serves me, the notes of Lee were formulated into the Tao of JKD, and if that's true, while Lee didn't actually pen said book, the notes and all were Lee, thus, Lee "wrote" the book.

In the words of Chris Kent:

"HOW MANY BOOKS DID BRUCE LEE WRITE?

There is a scene in “Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story” which bugs me a bit. It is the scene in which Bruce Lee, in the midst of recovering from an injury sustained during a challenge match with members of the Chinese community (an extremely “Hollywood” elaboration on what actually took place), receives a copy of The Tao of Jeet Kune Do from the publisher. I understand the need for the film business to heighten dramatic elements, and am not one who watches movies looking to find mistakes or inaccuracies. But the reason this scene bugs me is because it leads people to mistakenly believe that the book was written by Bruce himself and published during his lifetime.

So, for the sake of historical accuracy, how many books did Bruce Lee actually write? The answer is that he personally wrote only one book. “Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self-Defense” was a 97 page book written by Lee himself and published in an extremely limited edition in 1963. The book was re-published by Ohara Publications in 1987.

“The Tao of Jeet Kune Do” was actually published in 1975 by Ohara Publications. It was then re-published in a revamped format in 2011. While the material contained within came from Bruce Lee’s written material, the book was not actually written by Lee himself. It was compiled and edited by Gilbert Johnson, a noted writer working for Black Belt at the time.

A four-part book series titled, “Bruce Lee’s Fighting Methods” was published in the late 80’s or early 90’s (I don’t have a copy with me at this time so do not have the exact publishing date) by Ohara Publications. The text for this series books was put together by the publisher, Mito Uyehara, utilizing material from the Tao of JKD as well as other articles pertaining to JKD published by Black Belt magazine. Uyehara was both a student and good friend of Bruce Lee.

In the late 1990’s Tuttle Publishing released a series of books containing Bruce Lee’s notes which were compiled and edited by John Little who worked in conjunction with the Bruce Lee estate.

There have been countless books concerned with Bruce Lee and JKD published in the forty years since Lee passed away, including several I have written myself. But as far as Bruce Lee goes, he only wrote one.

(Note -- For the sake of historical accuracy it has been noted that Bruce Lee did assist James y. Lee in writing the book “Wing Chun Kung Fu” which was published by Ohara Publications in 1972. However, his name does not appear on the book)."

The biggest problem is people pick up the book and think they are reading what Lee actually meant. They aren't. It's not an instruction manual and quite possibly includes ideas that Lee actually decided not to use in his art.

Great post, very good insight. So, I guess the questions I have are: if Bruce Lee were still alive today, would Tao of Jeet Kune Do have been published at all? If so, what would Lee have actually written in it? How much different would it be, how much different would the JKD art / community be? Also, since Tao appears to have been a sprucing up of Bruce's notes by Ohara and / or Black Belt, what has the JKD community done to clarify or mitigate what Bruce's actual beliefs and teachings are?